Trustees seek public input to review of the structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation

 07 July 2015


The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, the oversight body of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), today published for public comment proposals to further enhance the structure and effectiveness of the organisation.

The IFRS Foundation's Constitution requires the Trustees to undertake a review of the structure and effectiveness of the organisation every five years. Previous reviews, published in 2005, 2010 and 2012, recommended significant enhancements to the governance, accountability and operational efficiency of the IFRS Foundation and the IASB, while a Governance Review by the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board was completed in 2012. The recommendations of all reviews have been implemented.

The 2015 review will focus on three main areas:

  1. ensuring that the relevance of IFRS is maintained: considering the evolving financial, and wider corporate, reporting landscape, as well as potential implications of technological developments for financial reporting;
  2. consistency of the application of IFRS: looking at the IFRS Foundation's approach to supporting the consistent application of IFRS and whether there is anything more it could, or should, be doing considering the limitations; and
  3. governance and financing: proposing further enhancements, including changes with respect to the size of the IASB.

Commenting on the consultation, Michel Prada, Chairman of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, said:

"Previous reviews have significantly strengthened the public accountability and institutional underpinnings of the IFRS Foundation and the IASB.  Today we are seeking public comment on what further enhancements can be made, and how the IFRS Foundation should respond to an ever-changing reporting landscape.

The Trustees welcome all feedback and encourage interested parties to participate in this important review."

The Request for Views document is available on the IFRS Foundation website here. The closing date for comments is 30 November 2015.

The IASB will shortly issue a document for public comment on its Agenda Consultation. Stakeholders may wish to refer to both documents when considering how to respond.